# How-to use the GCE module (Google Compute Engine) - Pem file, creds, etc. **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [January 9, 2014, 5:56pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-use-the-gce-module-google-compute-engine-pem-file-creds-etc/14301 "2014-01-09T17:56:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![michael.longo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eada6e/32.png) [@michael.longo](https://forum.ansible.com/u/michael.longo)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2014, 5:56pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-use-the-gce-module-google-compute-engine-pem-file-creds-etc/14301/1 "2014-01-09T17:56:19Z")
Hello, I’m trying to use the GCE module, but so far, I’m not very lucky. What I have done: 1. I registered a new “service app” on my google cloud console, and downloaded the generated private key, in pkcs2 format. 2. Created a file secrets.py looking like following, and put it in some folder which is in my PYTHONPATH ---
**Author:** ![michael.longo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eada6e/32.png) [@michael.longo](https://forum.ansible.com/u/michael.longo)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2014, 9:56am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-use-the-gce-module-google-compute-engine-pem-file-creds-etc/14301/2 "2014-01-10T09:56:54Z")
Ok at the end I managed to find out. The GCE\_PARAMS = (‘[id@project.googleusercontent.com](mailto:id@project.googleusercontent.com)’, ‘secret’) Is not the Compute Engine and App Engine’s email, and the API key, it’s the service’s email and the path to the .pem file GCE\_PARAMS = (‘[id@developer.gserviceaccount.com](mailto:id@project.googleusercontent.com)’, ‘/path/to/pemfile.pem’) ---
**Author:** ![michael.longo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eada6e/32.png) [@michael.longo](https://forum.ansible.com/u/michael.longo)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2014, 10:41am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-use-the-gce-module-google-compute-engine-pem-file-creds-etc/14301/3 "2014-01-10T10:41:56Z")
And if someone try to use the GCE module, there is also a bug in the latest version of libcloud (0.14.0-beta3), you’ll have to install it directly form the latest code from the git. ---
**Author:** ![Eric\_Johnson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ed655f/32.png) [@Eric\_Johnson](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Eric_Johnson)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2014, 12:17am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-use-the-gce-module-google-compute-engine-pem-file-creds-etc/14301/4 "2014-01-11T00:17:27Z")
Hi Michael, First, thanks for reporting the bug. I’ve filed [https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/5583](https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/5583) so feel free to add more details if you’d like. I’ll try and get a fix for an improved error message out soon. I’ve seen the error “RSA key format is not supported” typically only when the keyfile has not been properly converted to RSA/PEM format. It’s likely redundant information, but just to be clear, the command I use to convert my key is: $ openssl pkcs12 -in long-hash-keyname.p12 -nodes -nocerts | openssl rsa -out /path/to/converted.pem When prompted for a password, the default is: notasecret If I use ‘file’ on both, I see: long-hash-keyname.p12: data converted.pem: PEM RSA private key Make sure you have the latest libcloud installed (pip install apache-libcloud==0.14.0-beta3). Now, just so we can verify that the key is working and you can at least connect to GCE and extract host information, try this: Checkout the latest ansible from source and set up the environment, $ git clone [https://github.com/ansible/ansible](https://github.com/ansible/ansible) $ cd ansible $ . hacking/env-setup Create a ‘secrets’ file in your home directory and set the proper values. Alternatively, you should be able to create this file in the PYTHONPATH defined when running “source hacking/env-setup” $ cat $HOME/secrets.py GCE\_PARAMS = (‘[long-hash@developer.gserviceaccount.com](mailto:long-hash@developer.gserviceaccount.com)’, ‘/path/to/converted.pem’) GCE\_KEYWORD\_PARAMS = {‘project’: ‘my\_project\_id’} Edit the gce.ini file in the source tree, and set the ‘libcloud\_secrets’ variable, the relevant parts for me look like, $ cat plugins/inventory/gce.ini [gce] libcloud\_secrets = /home/myusername Now, you can set an environment variable for the inventory plugin, $ export GCE\_INI\_PATH=$HOME/ansible/plugins/inventory/gce.ini With all that in place, you can try to use the inventory plugin against an existing GCE instance just to see if all the auth stuff is working: $ ansible/plugins/inventory/gce.py --host myinstance And you’ll hopefully get back some json about that instance. ---
**Author:** ![michael.longo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eada6e/32.png) [@michael.longo](https://forum.ansible.com/u/michael.longo)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2014, 12:58am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-use-the-gce-module-google-compute-engine-pem-file-creds-etc/14301/5 "2014-01-11T00:58:59Z")
Hello, Thanks for taking the time to explain everything! 🙂 In fact my main problem was the fact I didn’t get quite well what I needed to put in the secrets.py, but now it’s alright and I managed to make everything work perfectly fine. Just a thing, if someone read this thread to find some answer, you said to use the latest libcloud version, with “pip install 0.14.0-beta3” but people shouldn’t for now. There is a small bug in this version making - at least in my case - the module fails its run. Raising: [http://pastebin.com/Ajuu8Xwb](http://pastebin.com/Ajuu8Xwb) It’s been fixed into the github, so I think it’ll be ok in the next version 🙂 About the credential, I think it would be cool to be able to specify them into an ansible variable. But hey, it’s working fine the way it is now too 🙂